


Save Me From Myself

by Solena2



Series: If Only We Could Go Back Far Enough To Change Something That Matters [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (no actual suicide don't worry), Angst, Gen, Humor, Pre-Canon, Sans (Undertale) Can Save And Reset, Sans (Undertale) Remembers Resets, Suicidal Thoughts, Temporary Character Death, Undertale Saves and Resets, Young Sans (Undertale), more humor than angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27709912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solena2/pseuds/Solena2
Summary: Sans dies, as you do.It's surprisingly temporary.
Series: If Only We Could Go Back Far Enough To Change Something That Matters [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2014408
Comments: 9
Kudos: 22





	Save Me From Myself

**Author's Note:**

> This idea comes from a [Tumblr post](https://undertalethingies.tumblr.com/post/634473017028820992/undertalethingies-hahanoiwont-i-was-hit-by-a).

Sans has always been determined. How could he be anything else, to be what he is and do what he does?

If he were anything else, even the smallest iota less secretly stubbornly willful, he would have broken long ago, would have shattered to pieces under the strain of the duty he places on himself.

From the outside, he doesn’t give off the impression that he’d do anything, go against time itself for those he loves. From the outside, he doesn’t give the impression that he cares at all.

In the end, though, his actions will always speak for the truth of him where his words refuse to.

\--

A twelve year old Sans sits on the edge of a cliff, kicking his legs back and forth over the steep drop.

The forest continues, so far down below. He can see a small cottage, lit up by some unknown occupant within.

He wonders, silent, what would happen if he jumped. Would he land on a tree, the sharp points of the branches ripping his fragile body to pieces? Would he fall into the snow, his dust mixing with the snow until it became impossible to tell which is which?

What would the world look like, without him? He doesn’t have any parents to miss him if he were gone, doesn’t have any family really, aside from his brother.

And Papyrus would move on in the end, he knows. His brother has always been resilient, has always had something unbreaking at his core, for all his bluster.

What would the world look like without him?

He doesn’t really have any friends. He has associates, acquaintances, but no one in his life he lets close enough to call a friend. He doesn’t have any important contributions to the world, doesn’t have any great accomplishments.

He’s just some kid with low health and more magic than he knows what to do with, in the end.

If he jumped now, what difference would it even make, in the end?

...Well, there is one thing. Just one thing for the world that only Sans can and will provide. The encounter was months ago, now, but he can’t very well forget it.

Without Sans, there’s no one to tell Sienna’s mom that she’s dead, if monsters ever reach the surface. No one down here to remember that soul in a jar as a person with thoughts and feelings.

It’s small, but he promised her. He said he’d remember.

And it’s not like he really wants to kill himself, in the end. No matter the exhaustion and dissatisfaction he feels with his daily life, no matter that he can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel, there’s still a whole world, a whole wealth of knowledge and beauty and despite how tiring it is to exist, he wants to see it.

He wants to see tomorrow, not because he thinks it’ll be any brighter, but because he can’t experience everything the world has to offer today.

It’s this thought that’s still in his mind when the snow beneath him shifts, and he slides right off the edge of the cliff.

It’s the thought that damn it, he isn’t _done_ yet that follows him down the side with the small avalanche.

It’s the complete and utter refusal to die here and now that he holds tight as the tip of a tree impales his ribcage, his body being prised apart by the force of gravity and the surprisingly effective wedge that is the branch beside his sternum.

His last thought as he turns to dust is that he refuses to let it end like this.

\--

Sans comes to with a start, dropping back into awareness suddenly enough that he’d gasp, if he had lungs.

He almost falls off the bench, but he manages to grasp the back in time to stay on.

His head feels like it’s been stuffed with dynamite and blown to bits, and he struggles to remember the events that just transpired.

He’d been… talking with that human, right? Sienna? The one who was probably going to die?

...Something about that “probably” feels wrong. He presses a hand to his face, harshly digging his fingers into his skull, hoping the discomfort will clear his mind a bit.

He could swear he’d been in Snowdin a moment ago, but it made no sense. Sienna had only left an hour or so ago. And he knew he’d spent that time thinking, so why did he remember being in Snowdin too?

He presses a hand to his ribcage, just beside his sternum, without conscious thought.

The cloth is perfect and whole.

...Sans is perfect and whole.

The memories of the past three months come back in a rush, and this time he does fall off the bench.

Has he gone back in time? Is that even possible?

Without bothering to get off of the ground, he props a hand under his chin. What are the possibilities here? 

Because while suddenly finding himself back on the bench he hasn’t visited in three months and having difficulty remembering what’s happened since for a few moments is _extremely_ odd, jumping straight to time travel is more than a bit of a logical leap.

First things first: He remembers being impaled and turning to dust, and if he accepts hallucination as a possibility here he’s going to drive himself insane.

...Which kind of does rule out anything other than time travel, actually. Huh.

Ok, so how far back is he? Is he back to just a few moments before his unfortunate tumble, or the whole three months?

Thankfully, this is easy enough to test. He just has to go to somewhere populous and see if there are any monsters around, since there was a lockdown while Sienna was underground.

He teleports to Snowdin, because if someone sees him there they won’t know him to think it’s anything but some reckless teenager.

Looking around, the only footprints in the snow are his own. The shop and inn are closed, doors locked, and he can see the bar is locked up as well.

He teleports back to the bench and considers his next move.

He’s three months in the past. Nothing in particular has happened, since Sienna’s romp through the underground, so it’s not like he has any disasters to prevent or anything. (Aside from that time he told a waiter to enjoy their meal, of course)

It’s odd, he supposes, being in this situation. He’s now in a position to undo all the blunders he’d made last time, but he’s not far enough back for there to really be anything he wants to change.

Actually, that raises another question. If he’s gone back once, can he do it again? He’s not going to kill himself to test, obviously. That would probably be a bad idea, but he remembers that desperate determined feeling he’d had as he fell, and wonders if he could replicate it.

He tries as hard as he can to summon every bit of will he possesses, focusing it all on the desire to _go back_ , to start again.

To reset.

His determination rises to a crescendo, his magic howling, and the world goes dark for a moment…

And he’s once again sitting on the bench, thankfully _sans_ the confusion, the second time around.

Woo! Science, baby!

What’s he going to do now? Obviously this is powerful, this ability to turn time itself to his whims, so what great deeds will he undertake, now that he apparently never needs to worry about failure again?

...Holy shit. 

Sans has thought of an amazing idea, one that will change the world as he knows it, irreversibly altering the status quo even more so than this revelation has already shattered it.

This is going to change _everything_.

Sans pulls a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, unfolding it to reveal a series of half finished math equations.

He walks to the river a few feet from where he’s sitting and yeets it in, because with this power…

Sans is never going to have to do homework ever again.

Also, he’s going to read every book in the underground and no one can stop him.

**Author's Note:**

> Look, if I could control time, I would jump to skipping school _long_ before murder.


End file.
